Oh, New England! I had no idea of the charms and wonders that were waiting for me here. It’s a lot like the South but… nicer? Okay okay, I didn’t see nearly as much of New England as I’ve seen of the South. If it weren’t for those awful winters I’d be sending Joe job listings. It was unseasonably warm (I’m not complaining, for once) so there wasn’t the flood of fall leaf colors we were thinking we’d see.Food highlights…
Bonjour Mercredi et bonjour mes amis. I hope you will enjoy the fun French links I have for you this week. Book This week I’m making two recipes from the French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier. I’ve had it for a few years but have only made one or two things from it. This week that will change! I am attempting the butternut squash and celery root soup and Corsican turnovers with winter squash. This will also be my first…
New York City is unlike any place I’ve ever been. Leading up to the trip, Joe kept telling me how surreal it would be to see it in person after seeing it in movies and on t.v. my whole life and I didn’t really get what he meant until I was there. Sure, I’ve been to Paris several times and I get that heart-stopping feeling every time I see the Eiffel Tower, but that feels like a part of me…
Oakland Cemetery is a beautiful deathstination (thank you Caitlin Doughty for that word). Not only are there unique headstones and beautiful landscaping on a lot of ground, but there is a gift shop. Why don’t all cemeteries have gift shops? Do they not know how much money I would spend at each and every one? This time I purchased Ghost Cats of the South (the only thing that would scream “me” more would have to be Cooking with Ghost Parisian Cats…
In September two friends and I went to NOLA Storycon in, well, New Orleans. They live in Atlanta so I flew there and we drove to New Orleans, enabling me to check a new state off my list: Alabama. Since these are my travel and shopping buddies, of course we had to stop at the outlet mall outside of Birmingham. It was a great success, as well as the lunch pit stop at Yo Mama’s in Birmingham. I’d move there…
Bonjour mercredi! This week I have one of my most favorite collections of French things to share.Book David Lebovitz’s new book, L’appart, is now out. Read my review here and buy it on Amazon here. If you’re local, he’ll be at Book Larder next week. Links I had no idea that Catacomb mushrooms were a thing. Supposedly starting with horse manure in Napoleon’s time and ending with the construction of the metro. Now we have something new to call button mushrooms *waggles eyebrows* A…
Despite suffering while reading about this nightmare apartment renovation when my own kitchen redo was to start in just a few days, I really enjoyed reading this memoir. The beginning is a much more enjoyable read than later pages; he touches on his moving from Paris to San Francisco and shares humorous (and personal) stories of doing his best to integrate with Parisian culture. It has a more personal slant than his other food-based books, but there is still plenty…
I really enjoyed reading the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, so when I saw a magna version on the shelf I was intrigued. If you’re not familiar with the book, Marie Kondo is an author and consultant on tidying up. She has you sort all of your possessions by type and then ask if each item brings you joy. In the full book she goes into much more detail, often too much, and I think that the manga version is…
Oh, Shakespeare and Company. I’ve been to this store twice, the first time to buy a tote bag in 2014 and the second time to buy another tote along with a copy of To Capture What We Cannot Keep earlier this year. I knew it wasn’t the same store as the one that the Lost Generation frequented, but I had no idea of its rich history or what an interesting person George Whitman was. I first thought this book would…
Marie-Laure lives in Paris with her father and is blind from age 6. She has memorized the model of their Paris neighborhood that her father made her from wood and loves to read Jules Verne. Werner is a German boy who lives in a group home with his sister. He teaches himself how to fix a radio they found and they listen in secret while the other children are sleeping. We get to see Marie-Laure and Werner grow up into…